Tyler Glenn of Neon Trees Discusses His Decision to Come Out

Neon Trees lead singer Tyler Glenn, who grew up in the Mormon church, is talking openly about his decision to come out as gay.

Glenn came out to fans in Rolling Stone on Monday, and followed up with a Facebook post that details his relationship with music as a catalyst to go public.

“I’d be the 50-yr-old living with dogs hiding my relationships living on a beach somewhere. Maybe then I’d be comfortable with it,” he writes. “But it was last summer, writing songs for the new album, being so fed up with ‘hiding’ and being so ready to be ‘free’ that I poured my heart out into music more than I’d ever had before.”

“It was the moment I let myself write about the years spent in falling for my straight friend or the song I let myself write about thinking it was okay to be alone forever because it was better than explaining myself,” Glenn, 30, writes.

“It was those truths that came out before I decided to. But music never let me lie. Something always would come out in the songs.”

Glenn said in the Rolling Stone interview that he began sharing his news with friends and family members last October as he was finishing songs for the group’s new album, Pop Psychology.

Glenn, who grew up in Utah in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says he’s found a way to embrace his sexuality and his spiritual beliefs.

“Come out as YOU. That’s all I really can say,” he writes to fans. “That’s what I’d say to me at 21, the scared return[ed] Mormon missionary who knew this part of himself but loved God too. You can do both. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t.”